Road to Romani
At 7 years old, Eva Salina came by a cassette tape of Yiddish songs and taught herself every last one. De- spite growing up in Santa Cruz, the kinetic rhythms of that music spoke to some- thing deep in her bones. Struck by their child’s un- likely passion, Salina’s folks managed to find a teacher
well versed in vocal music from the Balkans, leading Salina eventually to become one of the more respected modern interpreters of Balkan song. She has since performed alongside native masters like Merima Ključo and Tzvetanka Vari- mezova, but her most fertile musical partnership came by way of Brooklyn, where Salina was drawn by an innovative community of similarly minded musi- cians. There she met Peter Stan, an accordion teacher from Queens with light- ning-fast fingers and a shared love for Romani music. For more than a dozen years, Salina and Stan have been setting New York stages on fire, leaving hip- sters and émigrés sweating and gasping in jumbles of flying limbs, and begging for more. Tonight, with Romani Songs from the Balkans via Brooklyn, you will get the chance to see why.
— Silke Tudor
415-826-2402
